266 comments:

My real fear is that the court jesters posing as scientists have completely missed a coming global cooling and we're 20 years behind trying to modify wheat to grow during the 50 day summer in Kansas.

Or god forfiend, we are actually the cause of global warming and the 5cm consensus (snore) rise in sealevels is really 500cm and we're looking at (a) 1B+ dead and (b) 40% relocation of population in the West and (c) a 25% reduction in crop land in the developing world.

A guy at the Y last week told me that Haiti's earthquake was caused by India's recent nuclear test. Sure, why not? Except that India didn't test a bomb, they tested a missile. Makes as much sense as Eve Ensler's theory.

(p.s. sorry for the deletion -- made the obvious point that was already highlighted in the article.)

Do these women really think they have the knowledge necessary to contradict someone? Their "facts" are talking points. I love how at the end they slander abstinence despite the recent fact that it reduces sexual activity in teens.

What air heads. It is so amusing to see them critique a woman who has accomplished something and it did not even directly involve vaginas.

BEHAR: Every scientist at every note believes in it but Sarah Palin doesn't believe in it.

This is why entertainers, especially silly comediennes, should stay mute on issues. Of course, giving her the benefit of the doubt, I guess she can call DiCaprio, Gore, Bono and Sting noted scientists.

Well, Mother Gaia is annoyed by global warming and is responding in the only way She knows how - earthquakes and tsunamis, with the occasional volcanic indigestion. FEnsler has a primitive pagan's understanding of the world.

I don't understand: Palin has emphasized that she believes in global warming every time I've heard her mention it. She says she comes from a state where you can see the effects of it; it's not hypothetical in Alaska. Maybe they meant to say she's skeptical of anthropogenic global warming?

Or god forfiend, we are actually the cause of global warming and the 5cm consensus (snore) rise in sealevels is really 500cm and we're looking at (a) 1B+ dead and (b) 40% relocation of population in the West and (c) a 25% reduction in crop land in the developing world.

What is bizarre is anyone could actually believe that putting all the available energy tax cash into a slush fund for Liars and Thieves will change one single thing upon the sun's surface from whence all warming, and now all cooling, arises. To add in the current seismic activity as an alledged CO2 poisoning damage is a brilliant stroke for the Liars and Thieves Club. The Club will make her into a world renowned Enviro-Ethicist complete with a Nobel Prize.

Global warming models by contrast don't have a single physics principle, not one, working in their operation.

Okay RH, this isn't as dumb as Ensler's comment, but it's close. One doesn't even have to believe in the models to see that they use laws of thermodynamics, conservation of energy laws, specific heat capacities, etc. Those are all topics covered in a first year physics w/ calculus course in college.

One can believe they aren't applied correctly, but to say they aren't there is rock stupid.

A guy at the Y last week told me that Haiti's earthquake was caused by India's recent nuclear test. Sure, why not? Except that India didn't test a bomb, they tested a missile. Makes as much sense as Eve Ensler's theory.

Almost, but not quite as bad as a self-declared global warming soldier (along with a wiccan, vegan, et al ad nausea) trying to convince me that Katrina was direct result of NASA firing that kenetic drone into that comet in 2005.

Echoing Jim S., I thought her observations of Alaskan Climate also meant she thought things were changing. For example, the time of year you can safely drive over the tundra in northern Alaska is much shorter now than it was 30 or so years ago.

ENSLER: V-day has 5,000 events this year. At one event there's 600 people, why are they covering that? What do we choose to cover in the media? Why is anyone giving attention to people who have really have a level of intelligence that hasn't really evolved yet?BEHAR: I agree with you.ENSLER: You know, you know, it's problematic. It's problematic.

Why are we giving attention to two people who have really have a level of intelligence that hasn't really evolved yet?

I love how at the end they slander abstinence despite the recent fact that it reduces sexual activity in teens.

Yes, only 1/3 of abstinent teenagers have sex, compared to 1/2 of non-abstinent teenagers. Considering that there are 33 million teenagers in the US, and that 85% of women having unprotected sex will get pregnant within a year, assuming half the teens are female, abstinence education would save 1/6 * 33 * .85 * 1/2 = 2.34 million teen pregnancies a year.

Now the problem would be what to do with the 4.67 million pregnant abstinence educated teens.

Icepick...The theoretical models are all wrong. They do not include a test for reality. Thank God that our current deep freeze from lack of solar storms, allowing extra cloud formations, has exposed the Industrial strength Big Lie using these models. It is the water vapor stupid. The CO2 is not accumulating in a closed system that traps heat. Nada. It does not happen, except in the fantasy land of UN Committees of paid phonies playing at science with models that cannot predict a thing.

Well she did get part of it right. Those who don't understand the science and concepts involved global warming are truly stupid.

What she said is equally dumb of course but that doesn't change the science and the fools who equate a snowny day in February with the vast vast vast majority of science which says one day a century doesn't make....and Palin is stupid in case you missed it.

Well, they can in some places, but it's hard to walk off Java or Hawaii.

We could relocate the our islanders but who is gonna take the poor of Singapore?

First off, no one will need to eveacuate Hawaii unless sea levels rise hundreds of feet, in which case we're all fucked anyway. Hawaii is mountainous.

Second, Singapore (to mention another case) isn't all that poor. I'm not sure how flat it is, and don't care to look it up.

Third, we're spending millions of dollars helping out places like Haiti (before the earthquake), what makes you think we won't spend some money to ferry people off vanishing islands?

Fourth, particulars matter. And I doubt you can find 1B+ people living on islands that are (a) far removed from lands that will be above the new oceanic level and (b) themselves are below the new levels.

OMG No! They're caused by the vibrations of high speed rail lines. The vibrations travel laterally through the curvature of the earth in all directions. The TGV causes European earthquakes. The Shinkansen causes Pacific earthquakes. Local earthquakes, like those in San Francisco, are caused by commuter rail.

I didn't say they were correct. In fact, I didn't comment on their validity one way or the other. I DID state that they use some principles of physics, but allowed that they may well be applied incorrectly.

Is that so difficult to understand?

(This is reminding me why I quit following the comments section here some time back.)

Ignorance bliss...The earthquakes are accelerating while the cooling happens. The warming stopped in 1998 and held steady as the Tsunami/Quakes happened, and has gone back to 1980 levels this year. What is the point except to demand more blind obediance to the Liars and Thieves Club with no evidence except a wild unproven theory. The popular theories in reaction to bubonic plague in the 1300s was more scientific than that. This seismic activity due to CO2 theory is a last ditch desperate ploy to remain relevant in the minds of the uneducated all over the world.

Well, they can in some places, but it's hard to walk off Java or Hawaii.The 5m ocean rise is going to happen overnight, just like the coming end of the world, which we're bound to get one of these days. Did you bring the picnic basket?

Global warming models by contrast don't have a single physics principle, not one, working in their operation.

You claim that global warming models do not use one single prinicple from physics. You did not claim that they were used incorrectly. Those are two different statements.

I didn't say that they didn't use physics variable names.

I claim that that doesn't make it physics.

Think about how you might set up the Navier Stokes equations for the earth. Write a tiny program to see how that goes, to force you to think it through properly.

It's completely out of the question. There ends the physics.

Model building then begins, among those with a management career track in mind.

The more physics-minded staff, on the other hand, goes back to working interesting problems that might see actual results.

Where do long wavelength ocean waves come from, for instance. A rather nice paper suggested maser action, with shorter waves breaking preferentially at the tops of longer waves and transferring energy and momentum at the right moments to produce growth in long waves.

There's a realistic-sized contribution from physics. Use that as a handy scale.

"What she said is equally dumb of course but that doesn't change the science and the fools who equate a snowny day in February with the vast vast vast majority of science which says one day a century doesn't make...."

OK smartass, define for me the length of time it takes to determine climate. Be specific and support your argument.

Yeah, Ensler's comments make about as much sense as Althouse continually pointing out in wonder (without ever admitting that she doesn't not believe in AGW) that it is cold in the winter in Madison, WI.

Doesn't this say something really frightening about the state of scientific literacy in America? Here we have two supposedly educated, literate, urban women who are members of the most educated and wealthy ethnic group in the US (Jewish) and they don't have even the most basic grasp of plate techtonics as the cause of earthquakes? You know, like why are earthquake guys talking about "faults" all the time?

The whole government is shut down due to the blizzard. Instead of snow days they have snow vacations. One would think that the Federal Government or the city of DC would have heard of an invention. The snow plow. It is placed on the front of large dump trucks. The trucks are filled with salt. Plow- salt. Multi-task.

Not to mention that the whole "vast majority" claim is just that, a claim with no evidence. In other words, it's just one more facet of the global warming propaganda war. It's made up because it sounds good. When individual scientists are consulted, all kinds of objections to the "settled science" come up.

What utter and complete bullshit. A lot of science is settled. That the earth is 4.5 billion years and life evolved and continues to evolve on this planet is settled science. The structure of the atom is mostly settled science. That carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas (e.g., that as its concentration in air increases air retains more radiant energy) is settled science

After the revelations that scientists have "faked" data by using actual thermometer temperature readings, I have come to rethink all of science. Everything. If we've been had all these years by climate scientists, how many other scientific fields are doing the same thing? I doubt that we even landed on the moon. Just some get rich scheme by some overzealous scientists, I'm guessing now.

...pretty busy today, so not much time for expanding on sentiments, but...

What utter and complete bullshit. A lot of science is settled. That the earth is 4.5 billion years and life evolved and continues to evolve on this planet is settled science. The structure of the atom is mostly settled science. That carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas (e.g., that as its concentration in air increases air retains more radiant energy) is settled science

That carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas (e.g., that as its concentration in air increases air retains more radiant energy) is settled science...

Um, no it is not. Actually there is no scientific agreement on the existence of greenhouse gasses even existing. Carbon dioxide is a by- product of carbon- a building block of life. That is settled science. The rest is hoax- theory wrapped in ideology tied with apocalypitic fiction.

"One would think that the Federal Government or the city of DC would have heard of an invention. The snow plow. It is placed on the front of large dump trucks. The trucks are filled with salt. Plow- salt. Multi-task."

Actually, according to this link at Drudge Reports, they have 240 snowplows in DC, 60 of them are out of service (25%), and there is a severe shortage of available parts for that region. I'm in a cold region where snow is always anticipated, but years ago I remember my maintenance staff having the hardest time getting emergency service on our pickup truck/plow combo - seems like the breakdowns only happened during a snowstorm, and the same thing seemed to have happened to others, so we had "wait in line".

When last I looked earthquakes and volcanic eruptions (and the tidal waves they can cause) were subterranean phenomena unrelated to climate.

Oh, yeah, never let the facts get in the way...

This is the same woman whose signature work has had to be Bowdlerized (by the people producing it) because its climatic (both senses) installment is about a 40 year old woman seducing a 13 year old girl with the object of turning her into a lesbian so she will be "saved" from men.

After the revelations that scientists have "faked" data by using actual thermometer temperature readings, I have come to rethink all of science.

Except that those "scientists" can't produce the actual thermometer temperature readings they supposedly used. Even where they claim to have the data, they've been shown to have fudged the data to produce artificially high temperatures. They've been shown to have systematically excluded temperature readings from colder climes in later years while still including those readings in earlier years in order to induce an artificial warming which doesn't exist.

And so on, and so on, and so on.

If they have actual proof based on real science, then I'm willing to look at it. But it's seems awfully convenient that any time someone wants to see the actual data they claim to have used, the dog inevitably ate their homework.

We don't accept that excuse from high school students, but we're supposed to accept it on faith from supposed "scientists"?

Everyone of those examples you give is an example of a theory, and as such, is open to inquiry.

Once all the roads of inquiry have been traveled and the theory becomes law, then is ceases to be subject to science and becomes the basis for more scientific inquiry.

The exact age of the Earth is constantly sliding back and forth, depending on the latest science at the time.

"The structure of the atom is mostly settled science." And this is an argument in your favor, how?

CO2 as greenhouse gas is under debate as we speak. If it is, it is entirely irrelevant, being a trace element in the atmosphere. H20 is also a greenhouse gas, and much more prevalent than CO2. Oh, and CO2 is not a pollutant. Can we at least agree on that?

Jim said: "Palin has emphasized that she believes in global warming every time I've heard her mention it. She says she comes from a state where you can see the effects of it; it's not hypothetical in Alaska."

Ms. Palin has also said that she believes in evolution every time I've heard it come up, but that doesn't mean anything to them, either.

Actually there is no scientific agreement on the existence of greenhouse gasses even existing.

You are absolutely completely wrong. Carbon dioxide traps radiant energy better than the other constituents of air (mainly nitrogen and oxygen). Thus as the concentration of CO2 in air is increased it will retain more heat energy. This fact is demonstrable in the lab and is explained by well known principles of physics and chemistry.

Granted, the rigid mathematical effect of increased CO2 concentration on a discrete sample of air cannot be extrapolated to a system as complex as the earth. But that CO2 is a greenhouse gas is an undeniable fact--as much an undeniable fact that the air in a glass greenhouse is going to be warmer on a sunny day than the air outside.

Eve Ensler has done more for women than Anne Althouse and Sarah Palin combined. She has made tangible, practical improvements to the lives of thousands of women around the world.

I would like you to compare/contrast what tangible, practical improvements you have in mind with the very real damage and suffering Ensler and the rest of her second wave feminist do-gooders did to women who chose (yes, many of them did actually and still do actuall CHOOSE) to be housewives.

Feminism was supposed to be about choice. Ensler and her ilk proved that it was only about choosing the way they would have women choose.

I am happy to accept global warming and even happier to note that only really smart people like liberals can understand that climate and weather are two different things, etc. What I would like to see, however, are the actual models. You know, the code, along with the input values and the equations used to determine the looming catastrophe. Any decent scientist would be happy, no proud, to share the model, the code the inputs so that really ignorant skeptics could be silenced. right? Right? Or maybe the models work backwards from the conclusion to the necessary inputs. Easy enough to find out if you had the models.

Depends what you mean by pollutant? I'll agree to your characterization if you agree to spend two hours in a room where the CO2 level has reached 5%. At that concentration, O2 is still around 20%, plenty enough to breathe, so you shouldn't be worried in the least.

Eve Ensler used the popularity of "The Vagina Monologues" to start an organization called V-Day that fights violence against women around the world. Last year, they built a TOWN in the Congo to shelter women ostracized from their communities because they were raped during the ongoing fighting there...

Her style may look silly to some but she is dynamic and committed and actually helping real women recover from trauma.

I see deafening silence greets my pointing out that behind the caricature of a feminist tart who writes silly plays about vaginas and said something dumb on tv this one time, Eve Enlser is actually fucking DOING something to improve the world, as opposed to the bunch of over the hill grousing boomers and their utterly useless figureheads like Sarah Fucking Palin?

What the fuck did Sarah Palin ever do for anyone but herself in her damn life?

Most people who lived within the path of the tsunami believe that it was triggered by underwater testing of a nuclear bomb, a joint operation of the US and Israel. Most people in Africa believe that AIDS was the result of some type of USA bioexperiment that went awry.... People believe what they want to believe and prefer to pin the blame for their misfortune on people they hate......For the past two hundred years artists and intellectuals have consistently misread the times and trends in which they lived. Such people have created societies that eliminated aristocrats,the bourgeoise and capitalism without any appreciable increase in human happiness.....Enclosure, as described by Karl Marx in Das Kapital, never happened. If the figures in the British government's Blue Book statistics did not agree with his thesis, he simply changed the statistics. Reminds one of gobal warming scientists.... People like Behar and Ensler have in the course of their lives believed in a lot of things that they would now acknowledge as foolish. They may lose their beliefs but they never lose their fervor. In the end, that is their real belief--the wish to believe in the evil of people they don't like.

When feminist Democrats start complaining loudly about burying young women alive (see google news for Turkey) and taking off their clitoris's with a knife in places like the formerly free Great Britain, I'll become one of them.

Until then, I remain a proud liberty-loving woman, with smart girls who are currently enjoying their history texts here at home on this horribly cold day in Virginia.

What the fuck did Sarah Palin ever do for anyone but herself in her damn life?

What the fuck has Eve Ensler ever do for anyone but her self gratification in her damn life? She wrote a play. Big fucking deal. She built a shelter in the Congo big fucking deal. V-day, big fucking joke.

It's not like she, you know, actually invented something, cured something, or improved the life of a real named person.

MM said: "Eve Ensler used the popularity of "The Vagina Monologues" to start an organization called V-Day that fights violence against women around the world. Last year, they built a TOWN in the Congo to shelter women ostracized from their communities because they were raped during the ongoing fighting there..."

So, I guess that wasn't good rape?

Sigh, I'm gonna have to give that one to you, MM. Thanks for the reminder; to the best of my knowledge that org's work in Africa is quite good. One of the few "feminist" organizations who are actually showing an interest in helping those overseas rather than simply crying over things like the fact that Pam Tebow and Sarah Palin chose to give birth.

That being said, she can do good in one way and still be an utter and complete fool in another. Fostering this "angry studies" on college campuses is not just a silly style, it is harmful in a great deal of ways, from the attitude of constant victimhood and lack of responsibility to the attitude that encourages the vast stupidity that is demonstrated here, to the attitude that challenging (left-wing) authority or making a choice to have a baby or be a stay at home mom is terrible, and there is absolutely no excuse for the demonizing and slandering of women who dare to disagree with the "progressive" cause.

MM wrote: "Her style may look silly to some but she is dynamic and committed and actually helping real women recover from trauma."

I cannot comment upon her style because I have no knowledge of it. But as I work at a full time job as a psychologist who does and has done extensive work with trauma survivors over the last 20 years, I can comment on her "actually helping real women recover from trauma."

That last phrase is utter bovine scatology. Anyone who denies child sexual abuse between a 40 year old adult and a young teen by writing "It was a rape then it was good rape" has set victim's recovery back 30 years.

It is the exact same attitude as Bobby Knight when he said "If you are going to get raped, you might as well sit back and enjoy it." Mr. Knight was fired for his inane comments, and he had won a couple of basketball games and done more than write a "play" that is read from recipe cards.

That is the truth from someone who is qualified to comment upon it. MM, do you hate men too?

Montagne, it usually takes you much longer to go all ad hominem. Is it overly cold where you are today?

Lyssa beat me to it and probably voiced my response to your original comment better than I would have. Still, in emphasis' sake, the very real damage to women who choose otherwise cannot be waved away as inconsequential.

1) Mother Gaia hates everyone enough to kill - why should we be worshipping her again?

2) Garage:

"After the revelations that scientists have 'faked' data by using actual thermometer temperature readings, I have come to rethink all of science. Everything. If we've been had all these years by climate scientists, how many other scientific fields are doing the same thing? I doubt that we even landed on the moon. Just some get rich scheme by some overzealous scientists, I'm guessing now."

The moon landing happened before the advent of NewAge, so you can trust that much. What's happened to our culture - including the scientists in it - is anybody's guess.

"I'll agree to your characterization if you agree to spend two hours in a room where the CO2 level has reached 5%."

Since that's almost 14 times the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere, I think you're being disingenuous. The context is the Earth's atmosphere. It's not a pollutant there.

A CO2 level of 5% of the atmosphere is 50,000 parts per million. According to wikipedia, CO2 is about 387 ppm. So thats 140 times the concentration of the atmosphere.

I'm not sure there's enough fossil fuels on earth to get to 5% concentration of CO2. According to wiki, a concentration of 1% is enough to cause drowsiness, 7-10% is toxic. But we'd have a long, long way to go before we'd ever even begin to approach a level where it would be noticeable.

Joy Behar was a third rate stand up comic who ended up on the view, Eve Ensler, is a playright with some really twisted points of view, thishas given her entree to write stupid things about people like Sarah Palin, who has actually run a business, served as a mayor, and governor, reformed the state's tax code, the ethic code, and pushed for one of the largest energy projects in recent history, Those facts didn't stop them from painting her as a dominatrix in Salon,for reasons passing understanding. And they all combined to sell us Barack Obamawho has turned out to be, a miserable failure, in practicallyevery policy area he attempts.

MM said "I see deafening silence greets my pointing out ...utterly useless figureheads like Sarah Fucking Palin?What the fuck did Sarah Palin ever do for anyone but herself in her damn life?"

Christ on a unicycle, MM, you gave it exactly 9 minutes!! Have a little patience, why don't 'ya?

For that matter, Sarah Palin was quite a good mayor and governor, based on her approval ratings, and she has raised a lovely (though imperfect- and unless you were chaste as the new fallen snow until your wedding day I don't see any room for you to criticize Bristol) family. She's been pretty inspirational to high achieving women like myself, who were starting to doubt that it was possible to effectively be a mother, a feminine woman, and have a slam-bangin' career as well. She's providing a great voice for those who don't like the current administration's direction. (which I know you disagree with, but a lot of folks think you're wrong there and what she is doing is important)

I'm not saying it's better than the Congo work; it's not. But it's a hell of a lot more than most people get around to in their lives.

Oligonicella said... "OK smartass, define for me the length of time it takes to determine climate. Be specific and support your argument."

Tell ya' what. Take this fairly straightfoward overview and read it. It has big words but you can look them up when you get stuck.

http://www.whoi.edu/page.do?pid=12457&tid=282&cid=13366#1

When you are done and you "understand" that much, get back to me and we will either go a step deeper or pull out the Golden Books and crayons for you.

I'm sure the Dennis Miller, Rush, DeMint and of course Sarah the Great have other ideas but let's leave it for now that just because a small percentage of the population practices Voodoo....well you can fill in the rest....or can you?

Goodlord, you aren't one of those anti-science people are you? The ones with no brains? The pod people? Run run the sky is falling.

Montagne Montaigne is a fool. Eve Ensler is a font of misinformation and nothing more. And it isn't just "this one time" but always. I've never heard one true statement leave her mouth in all the years I've been following her.

That "trauma" you claim she helps women get over is imaginary, which makes her nothing more than an enabler of a man-hating psychosis.

Monty...You are a genius. Putting Palin and the professor together will be a great team. Sarah speaks and The Professor writes for her palm pilot. After the election they can make Meade the new Sec'y of Defense. And they can serve Tea at 4:00 pm for their party, with Wisconsin butter and cream. A soon as Palin sees Europe from the West Wing window, those EU guys will be toast. The Professor can also do charitable work, like free pants for men in shorts, to save them from boyhood.

"Tell ya' what. Take this fairly straightfoward overview and read it. It has big words but you can look them up when you get stuck."

Always a sure sign of bullshit. As Malcolm X used to say, "Say it plain." If the words are too big, then there's probably something they're trying to hide behind them. That's how I know - with no training in climate science - that what these douchebags were saying before was crap. I grew up around scammers, so it was all too familiar.

Peter, the Congo shelter is a big deal, and has improved the lives of real women. That doesn't make the Vagina Monologues a better play, because there's no cure for bad art, but the support for Congo alone is as important as anything Palin has done. It's actually possible that both women have contributed something to the world.

Ensler does have the unfortunate tendency to believe that she knows something about everything, as the quote Althouse highlights shows. She doesn't, but so long as she has a stage, she'll have plenty to say. As will Palin.

MM said: "OK. So Sarah Palin has worked for the government all her adult life? Conservative icon.."

No. First, you owe us all an apology for your immature little tantrum because you didn't get a response within 9 minutes of posting a half-way decent point.

Second, point to me ONE conservative who doesn't think that there is some place for limited government, which includes mayors and governors. Point out for me ONE conservative who's reaction to government being too big is, rather than cutting back the bloated administrative state, to take out executives in Alaska.

Up front: I dont know squat about climate science; my field is public administration and epidemiology; but I do know that the time frames in which you measure climate change may be the most significant variable--for example: mother gaia has been in a general warming cycle since the last glaciation period (40K thousand years ago)--interestingly, that warming cycle--which is probably still going on, occurred before there was any significant humanoid presence--

Frankly I suspect most of the commentors here are talking out of their ass when it comes to "science"--but, of course they could always publish their CVs and educational credentials so we can evaluate their bullshit. Frankly as much chance of that as John Kerry releasing his military records.

This is a blog--not a scientific journal. now both are characterized with excessive amounts of bull shit, but at least on the journals there is at least some degree of academic provenance.

With respect Freder's contention that the science is settled--right fred: until the phlogiston theory was overthrown; the geocentric theory was overthrown, until Wegner published his continental drift hypothesis in 1915; until ulcers were shown to be a bacterial infection and not due to sress; uantil maxwell published his equations, until newtonian physics was supplemented by quantum physics.

yes--the science was settled up until those events--the bottom line is that the science is never settled--have you never read a book on the history of science? And if so did you not understand what you were reading?

I believe Sarah Palin and Todd ahve runa PRIVATE business, at least one fishing boat. So No, she wasn't a government drone her whole life...and the fishng buisness provided food and employment to folks, so I guess she and Todd HAVE contributed.

But if working for the Gov't allyour life is bad, then what am I to make of POTUS Obama?

AGW and "science"1) The previous commenters are right, the science is NEVER settled. Instead one paradigm or model is accepted, by MOST scientists. However, "real" science is never settled because new information may come to light that invalidates the old model, e.g., the Michelson-Morley Experiment that could NOT determine the existence of the aether, one of the axioms of Newtonian Physics. After Michelson-Morley Newtonian Physics was on shaky ground, and the basis of Physics was in question. It took Einstein to re-establish a working paradigm for modern macro-scale Physics with his General Theory of Relativity.

2) AGW is NOT science...science makes falsifiable hypotheses that can be tested. The failure to falsify these hypotheses validates the model/theory. Example, Einstein, offered the Gravitational Lense Effect as one testable hypothesis, the slowing of clocks at altitude, and the explanation of the orbit of Mercury. in the 1920's the Lens Effect was observed, and in the 1970's High-flying atomic clocks showed the effects of gravity upon time, thereby suggesting that Einstein's model of the Universe was accurate.

AGW does NOT produce falsifiable hypotheses. It makes claims, sure, but Einstein didn’t say “By 1943 you will be able to measure a discernible Gravitational Lense Effect”, he said, you should see the gravity of a star bend light and this bending can be visible and measurable. For AGW to be “science” it needs to make claims that can be tested TODAY, not observed decades from now.

To add to what Joe has so elegantly stated: experimentation, to be valid, must be replicable--replication is the gold standard--When Pons et all claimed cold fusion, their experiment could not be replicate by independent researchers--if the AGW folks want their stuff validated thru replication all they have to do is publish their model, the scrubbed data (with rationale how the scrubbing took place) and the codes used in the model. That hasnt happened. In short--they have made a claim which cannot be replicated. Bad science--right up there with cold fusion.

BTW this attempt to label anyone who denies AGW as "bizarre" or "Insane" smacks of Soviet tactics where they would put "enemies of Marxism" in asylums.

Well I don't think its much of a coincidence that the global warming hysteria came on the heels of the Soviet Union being tossed on the dustbin of history. The goal of both communism and AGW is essentially the same.

And to add to the replication requirement, the model, if it is to serve as a theory, must be able to validate past observations and accurate predict future events. In short, it has to be generalizable.

This is not arcane shit--it is what any grad student learns in research methods classes.

In short--they have made a claim which cannot be replicated. Bad science--right up there with cold fusion.

But the sad thing is that doesn't resonate with the AGW fanatics who, despite the evidence of data being fabricated and baseless predictions will clap their hands over their ears and scream "but they used actual temperatures!!!!'

I don't deny global warming/climate change is occuring, I just don't think man is causing it and I have yet to see credible evidence that man is causing it.

Willfully misconstruing a quote like "good rape" taken from a work of artistic license is pretty pathetic. And I'm especially sure that they folks here taking the "good rape" quote out of context are experts in lesbian relationships and coming out as a lesbian in adolescence, right "DADvocate"? You are a teenage lesbian correct?

To be fair the problems with AGW Science don't DISPROVE it, they INVALIDATE it....Truth and Validity being separate issues. AGW may be TRUE, but we can't know it from the evidence we have, because the evidence is INVALID.

We need to re-collect all the temperature data, that was "lost" by the CRU...

"Scrub" it.....

And run statistical analysis on it...

All the above done openly, THIS TIME, and then run release the data, the model, the code and the results....

It is entirely possible that some or all of AGW Theory may emerge intact. But until then no dice....

And even IF some or all of the model is validated, and therefore assumed to be "true" Science, though ALL Science is subject to revision, that does NOT mean Kyoto or Copenhagen are the solution.

Example: rape may be a societal problem, shooting all men is a A solution, but not necessarily the one that ought to be chosen, even IF a number of social scientists say it’s a good solution. Public Policy is NOT the domain of scientists, alone.

Monty, you don't have to be an "expert" in lesbian relationships, whatever THAT would be, to criticize the quote.

IF it had been a scene wherein a man roofied" an adolescent girl, there would be no question that it was a "Good Rape" would there?

So you or Eve Ensler need to advance some axiomatic evidence or empirical proof that suggests it's OK for grown womyn to drug young womyn and have sex with them...or otherwise you and Eve are just hypocrites.

Willfully misconstruing a quote like "good rape" taken from a work of artistic license is pretty pathetic.

1) If that's true, Ensler's pretty pathetic. She removed it from subsequent versions of the same play.

2) If a comedy was done about a bunch of guys in white sheets lynching a black guy in the woods, even though it was all dripping with symbolism and irony, would you feel the same way? Do you suppose the more "enlightened" among us would give it the same intellectually dishonest shrug?

I was surprised that no one has picked up on what Jim posted at 10:59. SARAH PALIN BELIEVES IN GLOBAL WARMING!

Sorry for all the yelling, and I know it's rude. But isn't this the most basic levels at which Behar and Ensler demonstrated that they are total morons? You don't even need to point out that not even the most rabid scientific supporter of AGW believes that earthquakes and tsunamis are affected by global climate.

As far as AGW is concerned, I have little to add to Joe's fine takedown above. However I would like to see honest debate and discussion about the following issues:

(1) Slash and burn agriculture, as practiced in areas in and around rain forests, removes trees (which soak up CO2) by the hundreds of acres while adding CO2 to the atmosphere in greater quantities than all the automobiles in the Western world. If we are serious about AGW, shouldn't we station carriers near rain forests and modify our bombers to carry fire retardant?

(2) Is global warming necessarily all that bad? Wouldn't a northwest passage around the top of Canada that is ice-free six or eight months of the year be good for trade between our east coast cities and Asia? And if there was a second growing season in Montana (not to mention the unbelievably fertile farm area north of Anchorage) be a good thing?

(3) We outlawed chloro-fluorocarbons years ago, but are they continuing to persist in the atmosphere? Because chloro-flourocarbons are vastly worse greenhouse gases than CO2.

Oh, and you made one small error, Joe. According to the IPCC report global warming predicts that the Himalayan glaciers will be gone in just 25 more years. Consequently the thinning of the glaciers should be readily measurable.

feminist Democrats start complaining loudly about burying young women alive (see google news for Turkey) and taking off their clitoris's with a knife in places like the formerly free Great Britain

I'm ignoring Republicans until they start complaining loudly about men locking their daughters in their basements and fathering seven children with them (see google for "Fritzl case." Obviously, failure to protest loudly and vigorously = condonement.

Further, realize that the United Nations has taken the lead in eradicating female genital mutilation everywhere it occurs as a violation of the human rights of the child. Insofar as Republicans fail to support the United Nations, and fail to support their human rights declarations, they support female genital mutilation.

Yes, unless the author has clearly identified his bad characters as being bad. This is true in Children's Bible Stories, and in Atlas Shrugged. In fact, Atlas Shrugged consists almost entirely of the author's beliefs put in the mouths of her goodguys.

I had to check out Opus's link as I spend a good deal of time in WHOI's environs every summer. If you scroll up to the top of the page, this is what you'll find (emphasis added):

The following Q&A was developed from a panel discussion held in Woods Hole as part of the Institution’s spring trustee meeting, May 19, 2006.

IOW, Opus has linked to a Q&A talking about "consensus in the scientific community" that is 3.5 years old. At the bottom there's a note that it was updated in Sept 2009, but there's no inline indication of what information was changed.

And for the record, Woods Hole and its Oceanographic Institute are one of the biggest hippie enclaves in New England.

Yes, unless the author has clearly identified his bad characters as being bad. This is true in Children's Bible Stories, and in Atlas Shrugged. In fact, Atlas Shrugged consists almost entirely of the author's beliefs put in the mouths of her goodguys.

Further, Ensler has said on more than one occasion (prior to the "good rape" part being taken out) that her characters voiced the "true voice of women". In fact, on the one panel I saw her on, she didn't back down from any criticism of any part of the play, including the portrayal of men as oversexed simpletons.

Joe: Republicans are flawed in the same way feminists are flawed, sad to say.Ah, a variant of the "You're just like me too" or"They're all just as bad." Uh no...sorry. Failure to support the Un does NOT equal support for clitorectomies...We're NOT like feminists....unlike modern Feminism, actual Rethuglikkans have liberated womyn around the world, rather than discuss whether Saddam Hussein was better or worse than Al-Maliki or whether the Taliban were simply an "authentic" representation of Third World culture and therefore not subject to feminist rebuke, for fear of cultural imperialism.

According to the IPCC report global warming predicts that the Himalayan glaciers will be gone in just 25 more years.

The IPCC report quoted the WWF, according to wikipedia. Why a scientific body would quote the World Wrestling Federation is beyond me, but I wouldn't be surprised that Hulk Hogan transposed the digits of 2350.

What she said is equally dumb of course but that doesn't change the science and the fools who equate a snowny day in February with the vast vast vast majority of science which says one day a century doesn't make....What about people who take one hurricane as evidence of GW? That seems equally ridiculous to me. The people who point out the tons of snow we’ve gotten this year are just poking fun at the other folks, really.

Speaking of, we broke a snow record from the late 1800’s the other day. By a lot.

In other news, Joy Behar got her own show? She's the most annoying one!

Absolutely not. For example, I've been reading SM Stirling and Peter F Hamilton for years. I've actually had conversations with both gentlemen about their writing as well as their personal beliefs on various topics.

Yes they are. I don't say that the authours agree with their characters or that they advocate the actions of their characters....but they ARE responsible for bringing the characters to life. The authors may not intend that certain characters become what they are in the minds of the reading public, but they are responsible for the creation.

People who do copy cat crimes based on a character that was created by an author (ala Hannibal Lector). I think the author bears some responsibility for the creation of the idea.

Hypothetically, lets suppose the data over the next 10 years indicates a cooling trend. Then what? Do we promote economic activity high in CO2, tax wind farms and solar? Require Hummers in every garage? (the car type, i mean)

Understanding the planet informs that this has a good chance of occurring. Despite the opposite problem, I would expect the exact same prescription from leftist as they promote for a warming planet. I know it would not make logical sense, but does anyone doubt they would do just that?

I see what you're saying now, though I don't completely agree. I will cede that an author is certainly responsible for creating a character. The author writes it and there it is on the page (or screen as the case may be).

I would not, however, go so far as to assign any responsibility to an author for what a reader does with that creation outside the bounds of it's intended use.

According to a new climate change study, the melting of Greenland's ice sheet would raise the oceans by seven meters (23 feet), threatening to submerge cities located at sea level, from London to Los Angeles.

The Greenland ice sheet is land supported, so it would raise sea level if it melted, unlike polar seaice.

But Green land ice sheet was substantially smaller 1000 years ago (thus the name Greenland) and sea level was virtually unaffected. Most scientists don't expect the Greenland ice sheet to melt much, even the lying ones who say so anyway.

How respectably this blog treats its adversaries! I just never knew it! All the mocking makes it not derisive!

Carry on!

(BTW, we would all be laughing at you, too. But some things are just too pathetic and damaging to be laughed at. In the meantime however it is quite enjoyable to watch the influence of your side's perpetual attack-machine continue to fitfully ebb and wane).

Oh good. Back to the climate science debate. Can't wait for another one of those.

So how long do I have to wait until someone claims that all this snow we're getting on the East coast is a sign of "cooling"? Will it come in the next 5 comments? 10? Seriously, I'm waiting to be tutored on the interchangeable nature of precipitation and temperature that my fellow cons back here have attempted to try on.

nrn312, look it up. I'm too lazy, but I did read that Greenland supported ice was not considered a significant factor even among most AGW proponent scientists. The proof is of course that it was quite melted in the recorded past and sea level was the same. There are settlements under the current glacier.

Yes, it's the magical ice that doesn't melt on land while the ice in cold water does.

Right, and the reason is that wind and current patterns in the Arctic can push floating ice out into warmer latitudes where it melts...this obviously doesn't happen with land ice.

And your little alarmist article is cute, but entirely speculative. It says that the Greenland ice cap will start to melt if temperatures ride by 5F. They go on to predict that this might start happening around 2100 or so.

Actual measured ice melt in Greenland has been trivial so far. You don't have to unload that oceanfront property yet.

Ritmo...I see that you are back from snow world. Go ahead and tell the tale. I officially take the position that cold weather is evidence of cooling in the atmosphere. But have you seen the latest angle of attack for CO2 Cap and Trade Cabal is that "weather change itself causing seismic activity" like the earth is a big ice cube that is warming which causes cracking. We want to hear the latest tales.

""Back with me is a woman who has done more for the vagina than the Brazilian wax - the talented Eve Ensler," Behar said"

If there is a God, I'd like that on Ensler's tombstone. If by "doing more for the vagina you refer to "shearing" it from adulthood and cast it in a vulnerable childlike victimhood.

@MM

Eve Ensler has done more for women than Anne Althouse and Sarah Palin combined. She has made tangible, practical improvements to the lives of thousands of women around the world.

I know it is hard for you to see Palin and Althouse as practical improvers of not just women, but men who cross their paths. Both have interesting lives and multiple talents. I'd visit Althouse's blog if all it was was her photos..But she gives great commentary and draws...others....into the...vortex.

As for Ensler's practical improvement in the lives of women, how exactly is a pack of indoctrinated women stnding around in bovine solidarity chanting how they "Love their cunts!!" a practical improvement in their lives??I mean, what sort of accomplishment would it be to motivate immature male cattle to stand around telling one another how they loved their cocks? Lord knows Titus tries, but it doesn't seem to attract posters here to cry and say how much more empowered they feel about their cocks and themselves after reading about uncut hogs and bowel movements.

(Heh! As I was posting this, I got a vagina-like word verifier, "ilabia". No doubt Ensler would say that was a significant event..even further proof of global warming.)

I would not, however, go so far as to assign any responsibility to an author for what a reader does with that creation outside the bounds of it's intended use.

I wouldn't either, however had I written something that caused a misguided person to take actions that were regretable, I would feel SOME responsibility.

Regarding melting ice and rising seas. The sea levels IF they do rise will do so fairly gradually. It won't be a flood of 'biblical proportions'. More like a slowly rising over many years. People will have time to move and readjust.

10,000 years ago much of the area surrounding Florida was above sea level. Prehistoric people were able to mostly land travel through the areas of Malaysia that are now islands. Things change all the time.

Some areas will get worse for human habitation and better for other species. Other areas will become more attractive for humanity to live and grow crops. The glaciers that are receeding (temporarilly) in the Alps are revealing once thriving farming communities that were covered by the advancing glaciers.

I don't see what the big deal is.

And I do NOT believe that warming of the Earth, which is still in doubt, has been caused by man since we know that there have been similar warming trends on other planets.

In addition, the lies and distortions in the scientific (ha ha) process surrounding global warming make me very very doubtful about the results. Distorting for political and financial gain, the so called scientists have poisened their own well.

I officially take the position that cold weather is evidence of cooling in the atmosphere.

And I officially take the position that this year's snow is not indicative of more cooling than last winter's freezing temperatures, but indicative of something called precipitation. More of it, to be precise.

Precipitation, in case you didn't know it, is what comes out of the air once it has been warmed enough to absorb more moisture. It's why the debutantes of sunny Georgia and the Carolinas complain about that humidity.

For the record, I think most 7th-grade science teachers also take that position.

Just got back in from shoveling snow. In some spots there's hardly any in the driveway, but the wind being what it was (and right now it's worse, if anything) other parts of the drive had 5 foot drifts.

I see we've moved on to honor killings. For me, I'll believe that NOW and other Democrat (alleged) feminists are serious about honor killings when they post a million dollar award for the capture of Yaser Abdel Said, who murdered his two daughters on New Years Day in 2008. Until then, talk to the hand.